Caltech News tagged with "HSS"http://www.caltech.edu/news/tag/HSS/rss.xml
enInnovative Alumni Return to Inspire Studentshttp://www.caltech.edu/news/innovative-alumni-return-inspire-students-53229
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Robert Perkins</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/InnovationWeek-NEWS-WEB%5B4%5D.jpg?itok=EZ1dgAOx" alt="Speaker" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Nan Boden (PhD &#039;93) of Google addresses students during Innovation Week 2016.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Gloria Adams/OTTCP</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Caltech's reputation is built, in part, on <a href="https://eands.caltech.edu/then-and-now/">125 years</a> of scientific and engineering breakthroughs in the lab, some of which have led to important products that we use every day. However, helping those discoveries and innovations reach the marketplace in the first place can prove challenging.</p><p>To inspire the next generation of Caltech innovators, Caltech held Innovation Week 2016 from November 28 through December 2, inviting a dozen alumni entrepreneurs and investors to share their experiences.</p><p>"Caltech has a long history of innovation in science and engineering. However, when it comes to proactively working on taking these ideas to market in the form of new products and services, Caltech got a late start," said Fred Farina (MS '92), Caltech's chief innovation and corporate partnerships officer, on Innovation Week's opening night. "Nonetheless, we caught up very quickly to our peers, and now we have a very dynamic commercialization program here on campus."</p><p>Despite its smaller size, Caltech is granted twice as many patents per researcher as MIT, and three times as many as Stanford. Two notable successes include the automated DNA sequencer that enabled the completion of the Human Genome Project, and the CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) image sensor—which was the tiny chip that underpins current digital photography—developed at JPL. In the last 22 years, technology created by Caltech researchers has formed the basis of 238 new companies.</p><p>"We want to continue to create an environment here on campus that encourages and fosters innovation and the transfer of ideas from labs to the commercial sector, and this Innovation Week is one of the many steps we're taking to foster this environment," Farina said at the event. "My hope is that during this Innovation Week you, the students who are here, will learn about how to take an early stage idea into the commercial sector, but also see the number of paths that a Caltech degree can take you on—and there are many."</p><p>Farina introduced former astronaut Garrett Reisman (MS '92, PhD '97), who delivered the keynote address. After graduation, Reisman joined NASA and logged a total of three months in space on two separate mission. He then shifted gears and transferred to the public sector, where he currently serves as SpaceX's director of crew operations.</p><p>Reisman described the culture of SpaceX as one unfettered by conventional thinking and bureaucracy, allowing it to be nimble and creative. A key component of that, Reisman said, is that SpaceX hires young engineers—like the ones in the audience at Innovation Week—who are not afraid to try new ways of solving problems.</p><p>"The whole lifeblood of the place is innovation and disruption. If you've been doing it one way for a long period of time, there's got to be a way of doing it better—you just haven't thought of it yet," Reisman said. "The status quo has got to be the enemy. If it's not—if the status quo is a nice comfortable friend—then you're not going to have an innovative culture in your organization."</p><p>The week's speakers—which included alumni who now work at Genalyte, aeroMana, Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers, Google, and others, and also featured Caltech Entrepreneur in Residence Dave Licata—addressed questions about founding startups, commercialization and investment, fundraising, and venture capital.</p><p>Innovation Week was sponsored by the <a href="http://ottcp.caltech.edu">Caltech Office of Technology Transfer and Corporate Partnerships</a> and <a href="http://lindeinstitute.caltech.edu">The Ronald and Maxine Linde Institute of Economic and Management Sciences</a>.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="https://innovation.caltech.edu/content/caltech-innovation-week-2016" class="pr-link">Innovation Week 2016</a></div></div></div>Thu, 08 Dec 2016 22:15:15 +0000rperkins53229 at http://www.caltech.eduCaltech and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute Launch Major Neuroscience Initiativehttp://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-and-tianqiao-and-chrissy-chen-institute-launch-major-neuroscience-initiative-53124
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Initiative kicked off with $115 million gift from philanthropists Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo to establish a new institute and provide continuous funds for neuroscience research. Caltech to construct $200 million biosciences complex.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kathy Svitil</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-video file-video-youtube view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
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<h2 class="element-invisible">Caltech and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute Launch Major Neuroscience Initiative</h2>
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<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/grid_9/s3/media-youtube/PImd48bRR4w.jpg?itok=C7EPLYT6" width="450" height="300" alt="Caltech and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute Launch Major Neuroscience Initiative" /> </div>
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</a><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Caltech leadership and faculty join philanthropist Chrissy Luo to discuss how a neuroscience initiative and associated institute will create a unique environment and opportunities for interdisciplinary research that deepens our understanding of the brain.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Spearheaded by a $115 million gift from visionary philanthropists Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo, Caltech and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute are announcing the launch of a campus-wide neuroscience initiative to create a unique environment for interdisciplinary brain research. The goal of the new endeavor is to deepen our understanding of the brain—the most powerful biological and chemical computing machine—and how it works at the most basic level as well as how it fails because of disease or through the aging process.</p><p>Central to the initiative is the creation of the <a href="http://neuroscience.caltech.edu/">Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech</a>, where research investigations will span a continuum, from deciphering the basic biology of the brain to understanding sensation, perception, cognition, and human behavior, with the goal of making transformational advances that will inform new scientific tools and medical treatments.</p><p>The Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute at Caltech will be supported through the Chens' investment, which includes endowed funds to be used at the discretion of Caltech's leadership to support activities such as seeding new lines of research and supporting promising early-career faculty and scholars. In addition, as part of the neuroscience initiative, Caltech will construct a $200 million biosciences complex named in honor of the Chens that will include state-of-the-art facilities for the Chen Institute at Caltech.</p><p>Involving faculty from across the university's six academic divisions, the Chen Institute at Caltech will catalyze a campus-wide interdisciplinary community of neuroscientists, biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, computer scientists, and social scientists, all with the shared goal of understanding the fundamental principles that underlie brain function. The new building will be a nexus for neuroscience research on campus. It will comprise shared lab spaces and centralized areas that foster interaction and collaboration, amplifying and extending Caltech's long traditions in molecular, cellular, and systems neuroscience. As part of the commitment to the partnership, Caltech will also co-invest significant resources to be deployed for the Chen Institute at Caltech's operations.</p><p>Chen and Luo, who are husband and wife, are deeply committed to supporting brain research to promote and improve the well-being of humanity. Caltech, with its intimate research environment and quantitative approach to probing the biological and computational complexity of the brain, as well as its robust history in the fields of neuroscience and fundamental biology, is uniquely poised to advance discoveries and to develop new insights that will lead to innovation and improvement in the human condition.</p><p>"It is a privilege to launch this vital collaborative effort with Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo," says Caltech president Thomas Rosenbaum, the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. "We share a vision with our cornerstone partners, the Chens, of translating insights into the fundamental biology, chemistry, and physics of the brain into a deeper understanding of how human beings perceive and interact with the world, and how technological interventions can improve the human experience."</p><p>Chen and Luo founded Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited in 1999, which became the largest online entertainment developer and publisher in China. The company has since transformed into a global private investment company. The couple are longtime philanthropists who have provided funding toward medical programs for children in China and Mongolia, supported education for underprivileged families, and contributed to disaster relief and rebuild efforts in China. Through collaborations with top global universities, the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute's brain research initiative will be focused on three areas: brain discovery, treatment, and development. This gift to Caltech represents the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute's first investment in this initiative and at an institution in the United States.</p><p>"Our involvement in the Internet and entertainment industries allowed us to witness the ability for technology advancements to influence human perception, as well as to observe the resultant meaningful effects on human behavior," says Tianqiao Chen, co-founder of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute. "However, there is little understanding about how the brain processes and connects what lies in between—sensation, perception, cognition, and action. We believe uncovering how the brain perceives, interprets, and interacts with the world is pivotal in so many aspects. It can shape groundbreaking industries such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality. It also plays a critical role in addressing social issues such as aging and behavioral deficiencies. It can even help answer many ultimate questions about life, such as its origin, purpose, and ending. This is the mission of our philanthropy, and we are dedicating an initial one billion dollars to this cause."</p><p>Chrissy Luo, co-founder of Shanda and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, adds, "We spent two years learning the subject from highly regarded global universities with whom we continue to have conversations. We chose Caltech as our first partner not just for their strong reputation as a leading research institution, but also for the admiration in their natural alignment with Shanda's culture, which is focused on creating excellence and discovery. We have enjoyed the strong working relationship with Caltech and are firmly confident of this partnership."</p><p>Caltech's pioneering work in neuroscience includes Seymour Benzer's discovery that the fruit fly <em>Drosophila melanogaster </em>could be used as a simple organism to study how genes influence behavior. It is also illustrated by Roger Sperry's Nobel Prize–winning discovery that the right and left sides of the human brain must communicate with each other for proper cognitive function. Caltech also has been the home of achievements in computational neuroscience such as the development of very-large-scale integrated circuits, their application to machine learning and machine vision, and the establishment in 1986 of the world's first graduate program in Computation and Neural Systems (CNS), which continues to this day.</p><p>"Everything that we are as human beings—our ability to see the world and ask questions about our universe—is rooted in the structure and function of our brains," says Steve Mayo (PhD '87), the Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry and the William K. Bowes Jr. Leadership Chair of the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering. "One of the greatest challenges and opportunities of our time is to be able to unlock that structure and how it relates to function, which will have an enormous impact on the lives of real people."</p><p>David J. Anderson, the Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, will serve as the director of the new neuroscience institute, which will comprise five interdisciplinary research centers—including four new centers, founded through the gift from the Chens, and one existing center. Anderson will be named the inaugural holder of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience Leadership Chair.</p><p>The five centers are:</p><ul><li><strong>The T&amp;C Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center</strong><br /><br />Led by Richard Andersen, Caltech's James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience, the T&amp;C Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center will advance Caltech's work on a new generation of brain-machine interfaces. Caltech investigators have been developing devices that can communicate with and stimulate the brain. Recordings allow intentions to be read out to assist paralyzed people to perform fluid motions using robotic limbs simply by <em>thinking</em> about moving. Stimulation will allow the evocation of new perceptions, helping those who have lost sensation from paralysis or brain diseases. The T&amp;C Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center will support every aspect of this effort, from the investigation of the basic science of intention and perception to technology development and clinical studies.<br /> </li><li><strong>The T&amp;C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience</strong><br /><br />Under the direction of Colin Camerer, Caltech's Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics, the T&amp;C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience will investigate two important higher-order core functions of the human brain: making decisions and processing and guiding social interactions. Using the center's resources for computational modeling and brain imaging, researchers from different areas of science will collaborate to understand these two core functions. Their findings will help improve how we make personal decisions, allow researchers to design devices and interventions to benefit society, and inform new treatments for neurologically based disorders such as anxiety and autism.<br /> </li><li><strong>The T&amp;C Chen Center for Systems Neuroscience</strong><br /><br />The T&amp;C Chen Center for Systems Neuroscience—directed by Doris Tsao, Caltech professor of biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator—will address the challenge of understanding how a large group of neurons firing in concert gives rise to cognition. The Caltech researchers working in this center will explore the neural circuits and computations that underlie perception, thought, emotion, memory, decision making, and behavior. Scientists within the center will collaborate to tackle each of these brain systems, as well as the larger question of how these systems interact so seamlessly. The center will back their new and best ideas with seed funding, computing resources, and labs in which they can develop powerful new scientific tools.<br /> </li><li><strong>The Center for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience</strong><br /><br />The new Center for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, led by Viviana Gradinaru, Caltech assistant professor of biology and biological engineering and a Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, will unite a contingent of Caltech researchers who are making discoveries about the brain's anatomy and development, how neurons communicate, and how processes in the brain can go wrong. In bringing these researchers together, the center will catalyze fundamental new approaches that will help us to understand how the brain works as a whole and to develop new instruments and methods for analyzing the roles that cells and molecules can play in perception, behavior, and disease.<br /> </li><li><strong>The Caltech Brain Imaging Center</strong><br /><br />The Caltech Brain Imaging Center (CBIC), originally founded in 2003 through a gift from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and directed by John O'Doherty, Caltech professor of psychology, will make available state-of-the-art instruments and expert staff to provide detailed measurements of the working brain. The CBIC has already made possible more than a decade of discoveries, helping faculty and students gain insight into how people learn and make economic decisions, how they perceive the world and experience conscious thought, and what makes up the neural basis of disorders such as autism, addiction, and congenital brain abnormalities.</li></ul><p>"Integrating the biology and the social science of how humans make decisions is one of the most promising frontiers for improving the human condition," says Jean-Laurent Rosenthal (PhD '88), the Rea A. and Lela G. Axline Professor of Business Economics and the Ronald and Maxine Linde Leadership Chair of the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences. "The collaborations that began with the Caltech Brain Imaging Center helped create the new field of neuroeconomics. The Chen Institute at Caltech and its centers will allow us to make new advances to understand why some individuals are so much more successful than others in learning from their social environment."</p><p>"Modern neuroscience is one of the most interdisciplinary fields of human intellectual endeavor in the 21st century, and no single researcher or laboratory can master all of the diverse approaches necessary to solve the challenging problems of brain structure, function, and dysfunction," Anderson says. "The Chen Institute at Caltech provides an unprecedented opportunity for Caltech faculty and students in different fields to join forces to take on these challenges, by creating new collaborations at the interface between traditional scientific disciplines. Computational approaches—grounded in Caltech's traditional strength in the physical sciences—will provide a common glue that binds these collaborations together."</p><p>Adds Anderson, "Caltech's traditional strengths in basic biology and the physical sciences provide an ideal crucible in which to forge new tools that will crack the most fundamental problems of brain function, such as perception, emotion, cognition, and communication, as well as to develop radical new therapies for currently intractable brain disorders."</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://neuroscience.caltech.edu/" class="pr-link">Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech</a></div></div></div>Wed, 30 Nov 2016 20:13:17 +0000rbasu53124 at http://www.caltech.eduValuable Decisionshttp://www.caltech.edu/news/valuable-decisions-53086
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kimm Fesenmaier</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/eands-valuable_decisions.jpg?itok=3BjR4uo4" alt="image of a man in a bowler hat facing away" /><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Ollyy/Shutterstock.com</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>You've just finished eating a healthy, balanced meal and are now faced with two dessert options: a slice of ooey, gooey chocolate cake or a nutritious fruit cup. After considering your choices, and with a bit of a sigh, you reach for the fruit cup.</p><p>It's not the most exciting decision you will ever make—you make many like it every day. Still, your brain received sensory information and, after a bit, you acted on it. But what happened in between? What transpired in your brain before you actually picked up the more healthful option?</p><p>That mysterious in-between is the focus of a fledgling field known as neuroeconomics, or decision neuroscience. Neuroeconomists recognize that while decision making is complex and a bit messy, it is also so central to our daily lives that a better understanding could greatly enhance our grasp of human nature.</p><p><a href="http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/a9ada33d?page=30" target="_blank">Read the full story in <em>E&amp;S</em></a></p></div></div></div>Wed, 23 Nov 2016 02:05:05 +0000rbasu53086 at http://www.caltech.eduFrom Dendrites to Decisionshttp://www.caltech.edu/news/dendrites-decisions-53083
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Oliwenstein</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/cupcake_thought_bubble.jpg?itok=Q0ztFhh4" alt="cartoon image of a cupcake in a thought bubble" /><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Keiko Satoh for Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The average human brain—weighing in at a scant three pounds—has, according to one estimate, upward of 100 billion neurons that connect with one another via some 100 trillion synapses.</p><p>A hundred trillion? Wow. You learn something new every day, right?</p><p>But wait. Was that really learning? Or was it just a bit of trivia you're likely to forget as quickly as you read it? What, exactly, is learning?</p><p><a href="http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/1ff788e9?page=16" target="_blank">Read the full story in <em>E&amp;S</em></a></p></div></div></div>Wed, 23 Nov 2016 00:54:13 +0000rbasu53083 at http://www.caltech.eduThe Real-life Pride and Prejudices of Jane Austenhttp://www.caltech.edu/news/real-life-pride-and-prejudices-jane-austen-53005
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Oliwenstein</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/KGilmartin-JA-HL-0144-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=0EuxUuDb" alt="photo of a first-edition volume of Jane Austen&amp;#039;s Northanger Abbey and Persuasion" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A first-edition volume of Jane Austen&#039;s <em>Northanger Abbey</em> and <em>Persuasion</em></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech Associates</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Caltech professor of English <a href="http://www.hss.caltech.edu/content/kevin-m-gilmartin">Kevin Gilmartin</a> has been working with materials—from literary texts to pamphlets, periodicals, and other ephemeral writings—at <a href="http://www.huntington.org/">The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens</a> for 25 years now, as part of his research focus on political developments in British literature and print culture during the Age of Revolution. But figuring out how to utilize the Huntington's rich archival resources in support of his teaching at Caltech came along more slowly. Directing summer research projects as part of Caltech's SURF program gave him what he calls "the first glimpse of what happens when students have access to primary sources at The Huntington." More recently, Gilmartin has been bringing students to The Huntington for class sessions with rare materials themed to a range of course topics. "The Huntington has become increasingly important to my teaching," he said.</p><p>On Wednesday, November 9, Gilmartin talked before a group of President's Circle members of <a href="https://associates.caltech.edu/">the Caltech Associates</a> at The Huntington—where the first formal meeting of the Associates had taken place 90 years earlier—about his teaching and the richness that Caltech's collaborations with the library brings to his students' studies of one author in particular: Jane Austen.</p><p>Surrounded by first editions of some of Austen's most famous novels—including <em>Pride and Prejudice</em>—as well as letters, books, and even a fan imprinted with the music of the time, Gilmartin talked about how Austen's work fits with his study of the Age of Revolution, an era of social and political upheaval in Europe and the Americas from the late 18th through the early 19th centuries. Having originally resisted suggestions from students to teach an entire class on Austen, Gilmartin said, "the breakthrough came when I was doing research on 18th- and 19th-century conduct books and realized I could provide students with direct access to ephemeral material that would help them appreciate the richness of Austen's narrative art."</p><p>What Gilmartin then created was a course that not only "marches through Austen's six novels," but also allows them to pursue original investigations into Austen's world, through a range of social and cultural matters that shape her characters' lives. "I have my students each pick a research project," he explained. "They look into what Austen's characters ate, where they traveled, how they danced and sang and entertained themselves, and more."</p><p>Two of Gilmartin's students were in attendance at The Huntington that evening. Jenny He, a senior chemistry major, used Austen's novels and contemporary archival sources to learn how to do some 18th-century dances, and even made a video. Senior geochemistry and English major Sirus Han wrote on sexual scandal in Jane Austen's time, which Austen treated far less directly than other print sources from the period.</p><p>"Politically, she was conservative, but never complacent," Gilmartin noted. "She wrote about a really interesting strand of the lower provincial gentry; people whose lives could be precarious, even if they were economically far better off than most ordinary English people of the day."</p><p>"Jane Austen is taken to be an exemplar of Regency society," he continued, "but it's important to realize that she was also a perceptive critic of it."</p><p>Gilmartin, who is also Caltech's dean of undergraduate students, is not only connected to The Huntington through his research and his teaching, but through a new program—the <a href="http://chhc.caltech.edu/">Caltech-Huntington Humanities Collaborations (CHHC)</a>—that launched this year to support interdisciplinary research in the humanities. Codirected by Gilmartin and The Huntington's Steve Hindle and coordinated by Caltech faculty, this collaboration brings a group of scholars together across the two institutions to work closely on a rigorously defined research problem over the course of a two-year research module. The 2016-2018 module, called "<a href="https://chhc.caltech.edu/research/violenceandorder">Violence and Order Past and Present</a>," is directed by Caltech faculty members Warren Brown and Jennifer Jahner, and looks at the roles violence has played in political and social order, as well as the norms and cultural attitudes that have governed its use.</p></div></div></div>Wed, 16 Nov 2016 23:00:59 +0000lorio53005 at http://www.caltech.eduHuman Fear and the Social Brain: A Conversation with Dean Mobbshttp://www.caltech.edu/news/human-fear-and-social-brain-conversation-dean-mobbs-52963
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Dajose</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/DMobbs-FACULTY-HSS-4-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=e3A9uxsx" alt="Dean Mobbs" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Dean Mobbs</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="https://www.hss.caltech.edu/content/dean-mobbs">Dean Mobbs</a>, a new assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience, studies what happens in our brains when we interact with others and when we are under threat. Mobbs, a native of Kettering, England, received his PhD from University College London and was an assistant professor at Columbia University before arriving at Caltech this fall. Having once worked as a research assistant at Stanford University, Mobbs is no stranger to the West Coast. We sat down with him to discuss the difference between fear and anxiety, the idea of safety in numbers, and his return to California after 12 years.</p><h3><strong>What is your research focus within neuroscience?</strong></h3><p>I focus on two areas. The first is using brain imaging to study neural responses to ecologically defined threats. We use fMRI [functional magnetic resonance imaging] and virtual games to put people in various situations—for example, one where they have to escape from a virtual predator, or where a predator is absent, but could appear at any time. These studies show that a potential threat—something that may happen in the near or distant future—evokes neural circuits associated with anxiety. This is in contrast to when a subject is presented with a threat that is present, which evokes different neural circuits that are associated with fear.</p><p>We also study the neural basis of social interaction—what happens when you place people into a social environment and how that alters their emotions. Animals live in groups, which is the most common way to protect yourself as an animal. In ecology, this is called risk dilution—or, simply put, "safety in numbers." So we study situations when people are under threat alone versus when they are with two and three other people. We've looked at groups as large as 15 people, and we find that the larger the group, the less fear people feel when they are in threatening situations.</p><h3><strong>What has your academic path been like?</strong></h3><p>For many years, I was working as a house painter in the United Kingdom. Coming from a working-class background, my younger brother—a psychiatrist in Oregon—and I are the only ones in my family who have gone to university. Therefore, my path has been defined as overcoming negative expectations and navigating a system that was closed to people of my geography and class.</p><p>I returned to school in my mid-twenties, obtaining a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Birmingham. This was followed by a research assistant position at Stanford University, studying neurogenetic disorders. In particular, I was looking at people with Williams Syndrome, which is characterized by an extreme propensity to be social despite other developmental deficits like low IQ. I then did my PhD at University College London where I studied the neural basis of emotion. I followed my PhD with a postdoctoral fellowship at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, and was also a research fellow at Clare Hall in the University of Cambridge.</p><p>After my PhD, I continued to refine my research question concerning the neural basis of ecologically defined threats. We looked at the neural effects of distant threats versus close ones—for example, tarantulas—how people "choke" or make mistakes under pressure, how envy increases our enjoyment at others' misfortunes, and the neural basis of vicarious reward or why we find it rewarding to see others win money.</p><p>My path through neuroscience was motivated because I fell in love with clever experiments in social psychology and affective science. That was around the time when psychology was becoming more biological because of brain imaging. Since I've been a PI, I have been merging these fields.</p><h3><strong>What excites you about being at Caltech?</strong></h3><p>What excites me about Caltech is the intellectual environment. It's a joy to work here. I am also excited by the approaches that the economists take. In my opinion, the best social neuroscience research takes an economic approach, because it uses well-established economic models and game theory, and applies mathematical models to decision-making processes. Coming from a psychology background, I have the opportunity to interact with people who have different ways of thinking about these questions and take a broad approach to decision making—researchers in political science, psychology, neuroscience—and to bounce ideas off of a rich, diverse pool of people.</p><h3><strong>What do you like to do in your free time?</strong></h3><p>I have a 17-month-old daughter at home so mostly I am enjoying being a father. I also love taking trips to explore California; it is truly an amazing part of the world, and I don't think I've stopped smiling since I've arrived. </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/knowing-vote-50204" class="pr-link">Knowing the Vote</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/surprising-results-game-theory-studies-42926" class="pr-link">Surprising Results from Game Theory Studies</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/arc-abolition-52415" class="pr-link">The Arc of Abolition</a></div></div></div>Fri, 11 Nov 2016 22:29:42 +0000ldajose52963 at http://www.caltech.eduDifferent Mindshttp://www.caltech.edu/news/different-minds-52928
<div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/eands-different_minds-winter_2012.jpg?itok=26E-p2Yy" alt="image of people making different gestures" /></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>If there's one thing Ralph Adolphs wants you to understand about autism, it's this: "It's wrong to call many of the people on the autism spectrum impaired," says the Caltech neuroscientist. "They're simply different."</p><p>These differences are in no way insignificant—they are, after all, why so much effort and passion is being put into understanding autism's most troublesome traits—but neither are they as inevitably devastating as has often been depicted. They are simply differences; intriguing, fleeting glimpses into minds that work in ways most of us don't quite understand, and yet which may ultimately give each and every one of us a little more insight into our own minds, our own selves.</p><p>What makes autism so fascinating, Adolphs notes, is what also makes it so difficult to study, to get a good grasp on: the diversity of the population itself.</p><p><a href="http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/2e0fb2ad?page=16" target="_blank">Read the full story in <em>E&amp;S</em></a></p></div></div></div>Thu, 10 Nov 2016 01:20:40 +0000rbasu52928 at http://www.caltech.eduDecision Making 2012http://www.caltech.edu/news/decision-making-2012-52927
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Marcus Woo</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-png view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/eands-decision_making_2012.png?itok=mI7CkyfD" alt="montage of voter guide text" /></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>As Election Day approaches, what factors are you weighing while you ponder your vote? Will you be charmed by a candidate's charisma and appearance—as many Kennedy voters supposedly were? Will you focus on the candidates' qualifications and stances on the issues? Just what will go into your decisionmaking process?</p><p>That's the question that Caltech's economists and political scientists and even its psychologists and neuroscientists are asking. And while they've had some success—gleaning insight into how the economy affects election outcomes, for instance, or what role emotions play in the process—no one really knows how you or your neighbor will actually vote.</p><p><a href="http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/680412e3?page=20" target="_blank">Read the full story in <em>E&amp;S</em></a></p></div></div></div>Thu, 10 Nov 2016 00:52:05 +0000rbasu52927 at http://www.caltech.eduAn Alumnus’ Perspective: The Caltech Experience During Wartimehttp://www.caltech.edu/news/alumnus-perspective-caltech-experience-during-wartime-52906
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Alyce Nicolo</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/Caltech_V12Program-01-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=5iOaabWP" alt="Members of the V-12 navy unit at Caltech in 1941" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Members of the V-12 navy unit at Caltech in 1941</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Courtesy of Caltech Archives</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>Caltech alumnus and Associate Howard Jessen (BS '46) </em><em>recently </em><em><a href="http://breakthrough.caltech.edu/service-to-country-service-to-caltech/">donated to Caltech to endow the Howard E. and Susanne C. Jessen Postdoctoral Instructorship in the Humanities</a> through a matching program established by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The gift will help enrich humanities instruction at Caltech and create opportunities for early-career PhDs. Jessen, who came to Caltech by way of the Navy's V-12 program—a World War II program through which future officers were able to earn bachelor's degrees—took time to reflect on his experience.</em></p><p>In 1943, Howard Jessen entered the U.S. Navy's V-12 program as a freshman at the University of Texas. Soon after, the Navy transferred him to Caltech to complete his undergraduate degree in civil engineering. When Jessen arrived in 1944, Caltech was a campus transformed by the war. Civilian students lived off campus and more than 500 naval students occupied the student houses, turning double-occupancy rooms into quads with the installation of bunk beds. A sick bay was created on campus for military students to see doctors and dentists. Although the school was not yet co-ed, the number of women working on campus greatly increased during wartime.</p><p>"The faculty had feared that many of the Caltech traditions would become lost with the advent of the Navy program, and with the necessary change in routine and discipline. However, it has been gratifying to note that the apprentice seamen are entering into the school activities and are exhibiting a fine school spirit," noted a report in the September 1943 issue of <em>Engineering and Science Monthly.</em></p><p>Caltech's research enterprise was influenced by the war effort as well. While on campus, for example, Jessen and his fellow students heard about faculty members conducting ancillary research and development to aid military causes.</p><p>"When the war is over many remarkable discoveries and accomplishments will be revealed that have been developed during this period of intense work and research," read the December 1943 issue of <em>Engineering and Science Monthly</em>.</p><p>For V-12 students, Caltech life was, of course, regimented. Every morning, they exercised at Tournament Park before returning to the houses to clean their rooms, make their beds, and as Jessen recollects "swab down the alleys." Then they got into formation with their platoons—four platoons to a house—and stood for announcements and inspection of their shoes, clothing, and hair before beginning their school day. For special occasions, the students would be called upon to march. "On V-J day, we marched down Colorado Boulevard," Jessen recalls. "I was the flag bearer."</p><p>The V-12 students were not permitted off campus during the week, but they had "liberty" on weekends. Seniors and those who worked as tutors were allowed to leave on Friday nights, while others remained on campus until noon on Saturdays. "We called it 'going ashore,'" Jessen says.</p><p>Jessen and his V-12 classmates left Caltech in early 1946. Many, including Jessen, were discharged to the Naval Reserve later that year and then recalled to serve in the Korean War. "We gave back two years of time for all of the good things the Navy had done for us earlier," Jessen says, referring to their education at Caltech.</p></div></div></div>Tue, 08 Nov 2016 20:58:20 +0000schabner52906 at http://www.caltech.eduSURF 2016http://www.caltech.edu/news/surf-2016-52903
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Dajose</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/JAgrawal-and-YYue-SURF-7538-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=wMDVLpo8" alt="Jagriti Agrawal and Yisong Yue." /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jagriti Agrawal and Yisong Yue.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>Every year, the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program allows undergraduates the opportunity to conduct independent scientific research with a professor. SURF projects cover a broad range of disciplines and fields at Caltech, and this past summer, 321 of Caltech undergraduates SURFed. Two of them sat down with us to discuss their research.</em></p><h3><strong>Teaching computers to play games</strong></h3><p><em>Jagriti Agrawal, senior in computer science</em></p><p><em><a href="http://www.eas.caltech.edu/people/5388/profile">Yisong Yue</a>, assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences</em></p><p>Jagriti Agrawal's SURF research aimed to discover whether or not a method called imitation learning could be applied to "teach" a computer how to play a 1984 Atari game called <em>Montezuma's Revenge</em>.</p><p>"Computers are really good at playing games in which you perform an action and get an immediate reward, such as chess," Agrawal says. "In <em>Montezuma's Revenge</em>, you have to take actions that will reward you in the long run, such as taking detours to pick up a key that you will later use to open a door. Computers that have tried to play this game have used a technique called random exploration, which looks at rewards and takes the best action at each step and is exponential in time. We hope that through imitation learning—learning through human demonstration—the computer can mimic human play and achieve a better play-through more efficiently."</p><p>Imitation learning hinges on a person recording their completion of a complicated task, such as playing a game or guiding a robotic arm to move like a real human arm and giving the so-called "training data" to a computer. The computer should then "learn" which actions are optimal in different scenarios.</p><p>"Humans learn first by imitation of others and then by self-guided exploration," says Yisong Yue, assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences and Agrawal's SURF mentor. "In artificial intelligence, the latter has been the predominant approach. But our thought is that in the case of more complicated games, the computer can first learn from the experts—us."</p><p>During Agrawal's play-through of the game, she created a series of paired images and commands. "Given any image of a point in the game representing the current game state, I recorded the corresponding best action to take—move left, right, up, down, and so on. So if the computer sees an image of a ladder, it will look at what I did when I encountered this ladder, and it will perform the action that I did."</p><p>Their findings are still preliminary. "Given the current amount of data collected, we find that our convolutional neural network tends to over-fit and not generalize well to new game scenarios," Agrawal says. "For example, the network tends to output the 'do nothing' action a disproportionate fraction of the time. Further investigation and data processing will need to be done to address this issue."</p><p>Agrawal plans to continue to work on the project throughout the school year. "The next step will be to collect a more diverse set of gameplay from a wider range of human demonstrators," Yue says. "Over the summer, Jagriti developed a pipeline to collect and process human demonstration data, and she will be deploying this at scale during the school year—we may even hold a pizza party so Caltech undergrads can play video games for science!"</p><p>Agrawal was a 2016 Rose Hills Foundation SURF Fellow. The Rose Hills Foundation SURF supports 15 Southern California students each summer.</p><h3><strong>Domestic violence in 19th-century English literature</strong></h3><p><em>Grace Lee, senior in applied mathematics and English</em></p><p><em><a href="https://www.hss.caltech.edu/content/kevin-m-gilmartin">Kevin Gilmartin</a>, professor of English and dean of undergraduate students</em></p><p>Grace Lee, a senior double majoring in applied mathematics and English, studied the shifting attitudes toward spousal abuse in 19th-century Britain for her SURF project.</p><p>The mid-1800s in England, during the Industrial Revolution, was a period of rapid cultural development, particularly in the area of women's rights. "As a modern woman and feminist, I was interested in learning more about women's rights of the period and, to an extent, what kind of legal changes took place to progress toward the rights women enjoy today," Lee says.</p><p>During this period, it was taboo to publicly discuss domestic violence, so authors and illustrators had to communicate their views on the topic symbolically through their publications. By studying works of fiction and satirical newspapers from the 19th century, Lee aimed to understand attitudes toward domestic violence in England.</p><p>"Fiction couldn't be published if its focus was solely domestic violence, that would be too controversial," she says. "Violence was often portrayed in a foil character to the main character, such as the character of Isabella in <em>Wuthering Heights</em> or Nancy in <em>Oliver Twist.</em> The gender of the authors is interesting to consider as well. While they both portray domestic violence as wrong, Charles Dickens portrays Nancy as a kind of martyr, he glorifies her subservience and sacrifice. Emily Brontë, on the other hand, shows Isabella as having accidentally entered into an oppressive marriage but still finding her own voice and power."</p><p>Violent, sardonic comics in satirical magazines played a role in illustrating the problem of domestic violence to the public. The idea evolved that domestic violence was contradictory to the English ideal of a gentlemanly person.</p><p>"To understand the feminist movement of the time, I had to understand its counterpart—what Victorian people thought to be masculine," Lee says. "The public's perception of masculinity underwent a change in the mid-1800s. This made it possible for women's rights under the law to change and expand as well."</p><p>The experience of doing research into English literature and history was new and challenging to Lee.</p><p>"This SURF was a great opportunity and a lot more challenging than doing a paper for a class because I had so much freedom to explore supplementary materials," she says. "I think the background that I gained in doing independent research will really help in writing my senior thesis."</p><p>Lee was the 2016 J. Kent Clark SURF Fellow. This particular endowment was established to support research in the humanities and is named after the late J. Kent Clark, Caltech professor of literature.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://surf.caltech.edu" class="pr-link">SURF Program</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="https://eands.caltech.edu/passing-the-torch/" class="pr-link">Passing the Torch – E&amp;S</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/learning-language-laboratory-50884" class="pr-link">Learning the Language of the Laboratory</a></div></div></div>Tue, 08 Nov 2016 17:55:59 +0000ldajose52903 at http://www.caltech.edu